Likely outcome of Theresa May’s bid to renegotiate Brexit deal is reversion to NI-only ‘Backstop A’
The most serious obstacle to a clean and orderly exit by the United Kingdom from the European Union appears to be Northern Ireland’s membership of the UK and the constraints thereon of the Good Friday Agreement (GFA).
Following the Westminster defeat of the prime minister’s Brexit deal containing the contentious ‘Backstop B’ provision which would have protected the GFA but would effectively have trapped the whole of the UK in the EU until NI chooses to leave the UK, the most likely outcome of the PM’s attempts to renegotiate the exit deal is a reversion to ‘Backstop A’ by which only NI remains effectively in the EU.
If this is unacceptable to parliament, is not inconceivable that Perfidious Albion will renege on its commitment to the GFA and contrive a way of severing the link between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, or of persuading the people of NI to sever that link for themselves.
Dennis Golden, Strabane